>> gretchen: the best debate coverage in the land will be from uggie tomorrow. are you going to stick around? give us post debate coverage? >> brian: there is nothing this dog can't do. he'll talk about retirement now. it's all in his new book. >> steve: join us tomorrow for the post game show. in the meantime, let's go up to the 12th floor and "america's newsroom". bill: thank you, guys. we'll start with a fox news alert. falling on the sword. secretary of state hillary clinton taking full responsibility for the security failures in benghazi saying the buck stops with her, but still many questions remain and that's where we start today. i'm bill hemmer. welcome here to "america's newsroom." big show today. martha: big show today. bill: three weeks away from the election. martha: good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum. we have hours to go before tonight's second presidential debate. secretary of state hillary clinton sitting down with fox news and in terms of

benghazi taking the plame. watch this. >> well i'm responsible for the state department for more than 60,000 people around the world the decisions about security assets are made by security professionals. bill: that is not sitting well with republicans. more on that. lindsey graham sending a letter to the white house, detailing the attacks up to the september 11th. asking, mr. president, were you informed of these attacks on our libyan consulate? if not, why not? senator graham asking the president, if he was informed what action was taken to protect the consulate in benghazi? chief washington correspondent james rosen on this. hillary clinton's comments, they come at a critical time, don't they, james? >> reporter: that's right, bill and martha. what appears to be a concerted effort to sway public opinion on the benghazi story or at least to alter the current narrative two top officials of state department are speaking out after officials

of lesser rank faced questioning under oath. secretary clinton was asked about peru by washington correspondent wendell goler. while she accepted the blame for the security measures she shifted blame for shifting accounts of the murders that the president offered on the u.s. intelligence community and the inherent chaotic nature of the event itself. >> as the intelligence community has now said their assessment now over the last month changed. but everyone in the administration was trying to give information to the best of their ability at the time with the caveat that more was likely to be learned and that there would be most likely changes. so the fog of war, the confusion that you get in any kind of combat situation, remember this was an attack that went on for hours. >> reporter: one of clinton's assistant

secretaries testified last week she was following the events in dpauz gauze in realtime, -- benghazi in realtime, bill. bill: u.s. ambassador susan rice is also talking. what is she saying, james? >> reporter: was ambassador rice's appearance on five sunday shows on september the 16th asserting benghazi was a protest over anti-islam film gone awry and not a premeditate attack, led critics of the administration to cry cover-up. she too effectively blamed the tell fence community for her false statements. she adamantly denies that the administration sought to hide the truth. as rice said, i quote. absolutely not she said to the "washington post." it was purely a function what was provided to us. what you get, day one, day two, day 14 isn't the whole story. lastly, according to published reports, larry swarls the u.s. embassy office in egypt whose tweets

drew controversial criticism by mitt romney and disavowed by the white house has been relocated to washington. bill: interesting. hillary clinton was in lima, peru on the eve of debate number two. martha has more. martha: senator john mccain also taking issue with what secretary clinton is saying about libya. putting out a statement with fellow republican senators kelly ayotte. this is laudable gesture what you hillary clinton heard her say, begin the quote again. especially when the white house is trying to avoid any responsibility what every sew. the security of americans serving our nation everywhere in the world is ultimately the job of the commander-in-chief. the buck stops there, says senator mccain. and he will be guest this morning. we'll speak with him at 9:30 in "america's newsroom". we'll talk about whether the white house or the national security team there missed the warning signs in benghazi. that is ahead in a couple of

minutes. this fox news alert now. the presidential candidates ready for round two in their debate series with only three weeks to go from today. 21 days away, folks. tonight is a town hall-style debate. it takes place at hofstra university on new york's long island in what could be the most intriguing part of all of this, the american voters will be doing the questioning tonight. but a lot of questions about this format, where the questions are coming from, how it will all work. john roberts is there in hempstead, no new york, to search some of it out for us. good morning, john. >> reporter: governor romney wheels up from boston on the way to hofstra university. he has a walk-through this afternoon the bar is high for him after the first debate. he really has to win this one. he has momentum going. polls are evening toward him. women making up 15 point deficit to president obama. he has to articulate a clear

choice between himself and the president as his running mate paul ryan did on the campaign trail in cincinnati yesterday. >> the choice is really clear. do we want more stagnation that fosters more government dependency or do we want a dynamic growing economy that creates opportunity and creates job. that is what this is about. growth versus stagnation. opportunity and upward mobility versus dependency. ohio anns at this time it is within your power and control. >> reporter: there is absolutely that governor romney can not afford a major stumble tonight. bill: in terms of the president he may have nowhere so go but up based on his last performance, right? >> reporter: the comelycation for the president is more complicated. were they doing that as a knee-jerk reaction or were looking for reason to break up with president obama. if it is the former the campaign hopes to get them

back with president obama laying out actual plans what he would do the last four years and continuing to paint governor romney as dishonest, they have done with the new ad with hillary clinton talking about governor romney's proposed tax cut. >> i plead with you. get out there and talk to people for shared prosperity over trickle down. we're all in this together over you're on your own. over cooperation over conflict and for arithmetic over illusion. >> reporter: on the subject of money it was a good september for governor romney taking in $170 million. the campaign told me they don't expect to raise that much in october because the governor is doing more campaign events and less fund-raisers. martha? martha: senator clinton was helpful to president obama during the convention cycle. we'll see if the ad has any impact. john, thank you so much. >> reporter: thank you. bill: a little more on the town hall-style debate a selected audience of undecided voters, about 100 of them will ask questions

out of nassau county, new york. the gallup organization, select 80 voters who make up the town hall. they must submit questions before the event. the moderator, cnn's candy crowley will decide who to call on tonight. martha: that is major unknown in terms of debate. the moderator, candy crowley, raised some eyebrows among the obama and romney camps for comments she made in several interviews on her own network. she suggested she won't stick what is supposed to be a limited role tonight. she is saying she will ask the candidates her own questions if she feels the answers are not consistent it what the audience member asks. what that means and how assert tiff she is in that process. bill: it was 20 years ago today, sergeant pepper, no. 20 years ago today, literally featured first three-way con tis, town hall-style between president george h.w. bush

and challengers, bill clinton and ross perot. unlike tonight's debate the questions were not screened beforehand and moderator carol simpson walked through the crowd and had no idea what each person would ask tonight. >> governor clinton. >> i think i remember the question. and, let me say first of all, i want to answer your specific question but first of all we all agree there should be a growing economy. what you have to decide is who has got the best economic plan. bill: shades of yesterday. martha: boy, oh, boy. bill: like oprah style. martha: how about that hair? bill: how about it? that debate helped propel clinton to the white house and the town hall format has been used ever since. ross perot took 19% of the national vote. remember fox news is america's election headquarters. tune in later tonight, 8:55 p.m. eastern prime time. bret and megyn lead our coverage tonight. martha: looking forward to that tonight. thousands of voters in

georgia lining up in the hours of this week, early hours to cast their election ballots because they're starting early voting there. despite the fact there are two more presidential debates go, these voters say they're done, their minds are made up. watch. >> we waited 2 1/2 hours. wouldn't change my vote. i am a business owner and know what is at stake in this election. and understand how it will affect every american. this is one of the most important elections we will face in your lifetime. >> i want to take no chances. i have here. i got the time. >> i wanted to be sure i got it done and it's done. >> we waited four years to have an opportunity to vote again. what is hour and a half, two hours. i mean that's nothing. martha: you can kind of read into who those folks may have voted for based on those comments. they're not in the undecided column easy to say. election workers are really not that surprised by the crowds. four years ago, fulton county alone averaged about

3300 early voters per day. georgia is just one of 11 states where voters can go in person and hand in the ballot early. that is a big part of the phenomenon. bill: early and often. we are just learning now that a green energy company that received about $250 million in grants has defaulted on several of its loans and could be headed for bankruptcy. it is based out of massachusetts. called a 123. one. leading manufacture you ares of the car batteries. governor romney raised questions about the amount of taxpayer dollars were spent on these kind of green investments. >> i'm in favor of green energy. 90 billion. that would have hired two million teachers. $90 billion. and these businesses, many of them have gone out of business. i think about half of them the ones been invested in gone out of business. a number happen to be owned

by people who are contributors to your campaign. bill: stu varney, fox business network. good morning to you. what is the deal with this company out of massachusetts. >> another green energy bust. a123 make electric car batteries. they were supposed to pay some of their debt today. they can't come up with the money. furthermore they might not have enough cash to stay in business. they whiffle explore going into bankruptcy. this follows the bankruptcy of enter 1, another electric car battery maker bankrupt sometime ago. the sole reason, bill, we're not buying electric powered cars. even with $4 gas, sales of volt, for example, have been extremely disappointing. we're not buying the cars. we're not using the batteries. down go the battery companies. another green energy bust,. bill: are you putting the company in the solyndra category? >> it was very close. a123 was given $249 million

in grants, that is not loan guaranties, that is taxpayer check. they have used only half of it, cord to my sources, that is lost money. if they go bankrupt that money is lost. you can put that in the solyndra column. bill: maybe this comes up tonight. stu varney. martha: we're just getting started on this sunny tuesday morning. the government announced just moments ago the how much the average social security check will go up next year. you have might not be too happy about it. we have a live report on that. bill: we'll ask the voter which side this format favors? good question. can president obama explain the failed promises from last time around? bob and andrea on deck. martha: senior republicans fired over secretary of state hillary clinton taking the fall for the terrorist attack in libya. senator john mccain says he has more questions that need to be answered. he joins us live to explain why as former defense

secretary donald rumsfeld demands answers from the administration. >> i think the fact that the president went off to las vegas or wherever he was in nevada suggest has that was his priority and he obviously was it is missive of the fact that four americans had been killed and, we've seen what obviously was a terrorist attack. thank you. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far.

just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

bill: our top stories right now, tonight's town hall presidential debate in hofstra university out in long island, new york. president obama has promised to be more firm with governor romney but might be the president will have to answer for what critics are calling failed promises. bob beckel, former campaign manager, andrea tanteros, co-hosts of "the five" on the fox news channel. "politico".com, lead story. five promises of the white house, cutting the deficit in half, closing

guantanamo, immigration reform number three, reining in home foreclosures, florida, nevada, israeli-palestinian peace. andrea, where do you start? >> i have a lot more than that that, bill. there is balancing the budget. creating 7 million jobs and five million green jobs and i could go on and on. none of these promises have been kept. what you saw the president do even though he has such a significant amount of goodwill do a lot what bill clinton did in the first term. he went way to the left and pursued obamacare and pursued "don't ask, don't tell". as far as his economic promises go, i don't know what he is going to say tonight. he will have a very hard time attacking mitt romney when he stood before the american people four years ago in hempstead, new york, and promised all of these economic accomplishments. bill: come on, that is easy. we're moving in the right direction. we can't afford to go back on the failed policy of the past. he says that every day, right, bob? >> yeah, and he should. that is exactly right.

nobody says, you can't keep blaming bush. i agree with that. it is obama's economy. face it he inherited the worst economic --. bill: whoa, andrea, did you hear that? he did it. he did it!. >> this is history making. bob beckel. wait a minute. we have to take a moment. you finally said this is obama's economy. >> first of all have you ever seen a politician keep his promises? not one. name me one. who? bill: what about the five we just ticked off? whoa, whoa, bob. gitmo. that will be a huge disappointment, not just, trying to interrupt so i can ask a question. it must be a huge issue with democrats, especially on the left they really wanted that joint closed. and it's not. >> guantanamo? bill: yes. >> how many people you think will vote on guantanamo? bill: i'm saying one. five we're talking about here. >> talk about jobs, after his stimulus kicked in, after was taking 700,000 lost jobs from bush three or

four months, he created five million jobs. that is number one. number two, he kept is out of a depression. numb per three he pace passed legislation that made pay for women equal. numb fur four, he killed bin laden. israeli, relations have never been better. ask the u.s. israeli defense minister and said i never seen it --. bill: what about that, andrea, bob ticked off five of his own? >> when you think bob is down here on planet earth you finally admits this is obama's economy he says u.s. and israeli relations have never been better. if you want to get to foreign policy the president kept a lot of bush administration programs in place. i mean he has promised that arab spring, this was hi arab spring. it has fallen. said he would have better relations with iran and syria. why? he blamed that on president bush. we see the middle east dissolving into chaos. al qaeda and radical islam

is on the march. >> al qaeda is on the march? >> is fund-raising nonstop and not addressing issues. number one issue on the economy. over half of college students don't have work. unemployment is in double digits. >> get a new headline, okay? they're dead and gone. the people who attacked our consulate in benghazi were not affiliated with al qaeda. everybody is adopted the name. >> oh, bob. >> give me a break. you show me one structural situation where al qaeda has been operable in the world and i -- >> you will eat those words. you are going to eat those words. bill: 5:00. we had list of five things. bob came up with new list of five things. like "the five" all over the joint. >> there you go. bill: see you guys, later today. thanks, bob. thanks andrea. martha: so more on that. a stunning new twist in the race for the white house. we have brand new poll numbers that show governor mitt romney surging in the all-important battleground states. did the path to the

white house get a bit easier for the republican nominee? we'll talk about that. bill: half a million bucks on specialty shampoo for your pup. and you paid for it. and other ridiculous government spending. details in the new edition of the so-called waste book. martha: they look worth it. bill: sweet guy. ♪ .

martha: listen up. tens of millions of people on social security are learning just how much they will get in their paychecks next year. this dollar figure comes out annually and it is now out. steve centanni joins us now from washington. so will they see an increase in those checks that come in the mail from social security, steve? >> reporter: yes, they will with, martha. the word coming out within the hour. they will go up with 1.7%. which is right in the range

economists were predicting. this is tied to the rate of inflation just released this morning by the bureau of labor statistics. with a lower inflation rate comes a slight increase in the social security checks. 56 million recipients of social security see the checks going up just a little bit and it is about half of what last year's increase was. so it's down considerably. this is among the lowest increases since automatic annual adjustments were adopted back in 1975 and reflects very low inflation. here is a look at this year compared with recent years in terms of that cola, or cost of living increase. since the average social security recipient, retired person takes home $1237 a month, this 1.7% increase will amount to $21 a month extra. last year the cola was 3.5%, giving each person about $43 a month. and for two years before that, for 2010 and 2011 there was no increase whatsoever. martha.

martha: 21 bucks doesn't go too far over the course of a month. but that is what it is. who else is affected by this cola or cost of living increase, steve? >> reporter: you have 56 million people getting social security. another eight million on supplemental security income. they will also get the 1.7% increase. this low inflation is in line by the way with with the federal reserve's inflation target. modest inflation leaves consumers with more money to spend which could boost the economy. meantime and finally the social security administration also announcing today the maximum amount of earnings subject to the social security tax will go up, to 11 -- 113,700. martha: steve, thank you. >> reporter: you bet. bill: the secretary of state jumping under the benghazi bus. top republicans say the while house still has questions to answer. senator graham is asking the white house did the president know about the security matter in benghazi

before september 11th? if not, why not are and what was done about it? senator john mccain is on standby he joins us live on that next. anncr: every president inherits challenges.

few have faced so many. four years later... our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. there are still challenges to meet. children to educate. a middle class to rebuild. but the last thing we should do iobama and...now.esidek i approve this message. >> announcer: meet jill. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have, if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number to open credit cards, destroying jill's credit and her dream of retirement. now meet amanda. with a swipe of her debit card, she bought some gas... and an all-expense-paid trip

to hawaii for ben. ben is the intity thief who used a device called a skimmer to steal her formation from her card to open a fraudulent account. every year millions of americans just like you learn that a little personal information in the wrong hands could wre havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. lifelock offers the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. ordinary credit monitoring services tell you after your identity has been stolen; they may take 30 days to alert you! too late for amanda. with lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection, jill would have been alerted as soon as they noticed an attack in their network, before it was too late. and lifelock's bank account takeover alerts would have notified amanda in time to help protect her money. lifelock guards your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped,

no one protects you better than lifelock. and lifelock stands behind that, with the power of their $1 million service guarantee. you have so much to protect, and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and try 60 days of identity theft protection risk-free. 60 days risk-free! use promo code: onguard. order now, and get this document shredder, a $29 value, free! call or go online now. [♪...] martha: all right. fox news alert now. republican senator lindsey graham slamming the white house in a new letter this morning. after secretary of state hillary clinton claims responsibility for the security failures that led to the u.s. consulate attack in libya that killed four

americans. the letter asks this question. if the president was aware that there were two prior ied attacks against that consulate just months before in april and in june? and it says, quote, to the president, this letter, did you consider these serious events? if you were informed, what action was taken to protect the consulate? here's what secretary of state hillary clinton said that touched off this firestorm. listen. >> well, i'm responsible for the state department, for more than 60,000 people around the world. the decisions about security assets are made by security professionals but we're going to review everything to make sure that we're doing what needs to be done in increasingly risky environment around the world. there's no doubt that our men and women from the state department, u.s. aid, the

rest of the government are having to balance all the time how to do their jobs and not stay behind high walls but to do it as safely as possible and that's an ongoing, daily calculation around the world. martha: so there you have it. senator john mccain believes that the white house should still be held accountable in this matter. he sent a letter of his own. he joins us now, former presidential candidate, senator from arizona, john mccain. good morning, sir. welcome. good to have you with us. >> thank you. thank you, martha. martha: let's start with hillary clinton. why now and why is she falling on this sword do you think? >> well, i think it's an act of loyalty. there are many people at that believe secretary clinton may have further political ambitions and this could obviously harm that in one way but also bring in some additional support, possibly from president obama, who can't run again.

but look, i think it's very laudable that she should throw herself under the bus but, first of all, responsibility for american security doesn't lie with the secretary of state. it lies with the president of the united states, particularly in light of the fact there was two attacks in april and june. one of them was an ied that blew a hole in the wall. there was an attempted assassination of the british ambassador in benghazi and the question is what did the president know, when did know about it and what did he do about it? that's what the president of the united states's responsibility is. you know, martha, there was a sign on harry truman's desk, says the buck stops here. obviously there may be a sign on president obama's desk saying the buck stops over there. the president then went on "the view" and letterman, after it was well-known there was no demonstration. this was a terrorist attack by an al qaeda affiliated group, went on to say, on both of those programs, well,

this hateful video, demonstration, et cetera. martha: yeah. >> why didn't know that many days later? why didn't he have that information? because it could be that he had to fly off to las vegas? martha: are the american people going to get answers to the questions that you are asking? it is one of the things that jumps into my mind when i listen to you that the president and hillary clinton both made sort of a public service announcement about this movie that went out all through the regions in libya and the middle east, saying, listen, that movie it was not made by americans. it was not made by the american government, well after, we're told that the department of state watched the events as they unfolded in benghazi in realtime. so, you know, i mean what is going on here? >> well, you know obviously there's, they're in the business now of covering up when it's always worst, the cover-up than the actual situation itself. that always happens. but also, who was it, you know who it was, it was the

white house, not the state department, that sent our ambassador, susan rice out, to be on all the sunday morning talk shows, including "fox news sunday", to state categorically this was a spontaneous demonstration spurred by a hateful video. they kept that up for an unacceptable length of time when there was no demonstration. like you say, in realtime. there was no demonstration. it was an eight-hour attack. and so they are, they are either deceiving the american people or they are so incompetent that they don't deserve to serve and that's what, go ahead. martha: well, it was brought to my attention the other day that when you think about the bin laden raid for example, and details of that came out right after the bin laden raid, much to the disapproval of many people, and you look at this situation, and say, gee, so why was it that we were able to hear all the details of that investigation so quickly and yet this one, we're getting radio silence

on? >> any successful operation we've gotten all the details to the point where we all know they have compromised certainly seal team six and among others. but also, our director of national intelligence a few days ago said that they had had information that led them to believe it was a spontaneous demonstration. what in the world information could they possibly have had since we know that it was not a spontaneous demonstration nor a hateful video. what in the world did mr. clapper know? unless somebody made up something that gave to him. what kind of confidence does this give us in our director of national intelligence about iran? martha: that is an excellent question. we're looking right now at john brennan and clapper and hillary clinton. these are the people that you would expect the president would be hauling into his office and saying, i need answers.

why didn't i know about this? why didn't i know about these ieds that were exploding in benghazi at our consulate in the months prior to this particular attack? i mean you said moments ago, senator, that you believe that the white house is in cover-up mode right now? i mean that's a serious charge. >> well, either, it's either willful deception or a degree of incompetence and failure to understand fundamental facts on the ground, either one and either one of those is obviously totally unacceptable. and look, there's failures all over the middle east. in iraq the al qaeda has come back, more than doubled. in afghanistan we know the tragedies that are going on with afghans killing americans and all the president does is talk about withdrawal. in syria, now 30 some thousand people have been massacred and we won't even give them weapons which to

defend themselves and the tensions in the region are dramatically escalating. the iranian situation has certainly not improved any and our relations with israel almost at their all-time low. so there's failure throughout the region. this is just a manifestation of the failures of, and the consequences of leading from behind. martha: that is clearly what you see as the big picture reason why there is some obfuscation, perhaps going on here in terms of -- >> the president keeps, yeah. the president and vice president keep saying, usama bin laden is dead and al qaeda is not on the run. al qaeda is not on the run. they're coming back. they're all over mali which is really a dangerous situation. salafists and radical islamists are pouring into syria now, where as if we gotten this thing over with much earlier, helped these people, that wouldn't have happened. the whole region believes that america is weak and

withdrawing and that is the consequences of foreign policy failures. martha: you have a long history, obviously in studying all of this and watching it and being there on the ground. so senator mccain, we'll see if we get answers to some of these questions tonight in this debate. we'll all be watching. we hope you come back and talk to us soon about it. thank you, sir. >> thank you, martha. martha: so the developments in libya could play a role in tonight's presidential debate. we certainly expect there will be a question about this. next hour the romney campaign will join us with how they plan to approach this. that's coming up. bill: good interview, martha. and also general jack keane will join us in 30 minutes to react to all this too as well. the other thing we're following on the map behind us, the polls seem to be changing. which means these battleground states seem to be changing. on the map behind us there are 11 states in gray. those are the states we consider too close to call. and that's where this election will be determined. in a moment what the latest polling numbers tell us

about the gray states. we'll call them gray states for now. back in a moment right here on "america's newsroom." oohooo.! oh...there you go. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! i'm gonna stand up to her! no you're not. i know. you know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than a witch in a broom factory. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make someone happy.♪ it's so important to make meone happy.♪ ♪make just one someone happy

♪and you will be happy too.

there's the sign to the bullpen. here he comes. you wouldn't want your doctor doing your job, the pitch! so why are you doing his? whoa! only your doctor can determine if your persistent heartburn is actually something more serious like acid reflux disease. over time, stomach ac can damage the lining of your esophagus. for many, prescription nexium not only provides 24-hour heartburn relief, but can also help heal acid-related erosions in the lining of your esophagus. talk to your doctor about the risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels with long-term use of nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. let your doctor do his job.

and you do yours. ask if nexium is right for you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. martha: two hikers trapped for days in the treacherous conditions of glacier national park in montana have been found alive. jason heiser and neil pickens were found by searchers yesterday afternoon and immediately reunited with waiting family members who must have been hugely relieved. they're both veterinarians with extensive knowledge of wilderness hiking. no doubt that helped them. bill: good for them. i want to show you new polling in battleground states where the race will be decided three weeks from

today. bob cusack managing editor of "the hill.". >> welcome, bill. >> you can play along with me, okay? >> okay. bill: on the map behind us we marked 11 states marked in gray considered battleground states, too close to call. gallup showed a poll wigs mitt romney moving ahead in battleground states. with new mexico. we don't have leaning in romney's favor. which head it toward barack obama. what do you see in the polling that is significant? >> i think it is very significant that shows mitt romney bounce from that first debate. clearly, new mexico was something that was in obama camp. i still think obama is going to win that but the fact that obama has to even worry about that state shows you the gains that mitt romney made. this is key. this is are with the election will be decided in these battlegrounds and finally, mitt romney has on about, i think campaign has been frustrated they haven't made movement in the battleground. now they're moving. he has the momentum in this

race. bill: there was a movement among women too. what do you make of that? >> absolutely. barack obama really did not court the women vote in that first debate. i think is going to change tonight because he has lost ground among women. women basically decide elections. barack obama needs to win the women vote because he will not win the male vote. that's the key for barack obama tonight. bill: i would argue women decide most things in this world. back on the map here, i want you to key in on a part of ohio. i know we talk about ohio a lot. really, based on all the information we have right now, ohio will determine the white house and the next four years if things go continue the way they do here. specifically in ohio, keep an eye on cuyahoga county over the next three days. that is where you find, cleveland, ohio. that's where you find a lot of votes, frankly, back in 2008, barack obama easily won 70-30 over john mccain. look at vote totals, 1.3 million votes cast across a state of 11 million people.

why is that significant, bob? it is significant because paul ryan goes to cuyahoga county with condoleezza rice and thursday bruce springsteen goes there with bill clinton. they are going to there to try to find those votes. >> that is key for democrats. if obama wins ohio, he will get out the vote in this county where democrats out number republicans three to one. the goal for the obama campaign, is keep it close. most populous county in ohio. that is the key. barack obama has to get the vote out if he is going to win ohio. tradition is if you win ohio you win the presidency. there are other ways for romney to win it. bill: makes it much more difficult. in regard to all that, the romney team has been go countien the last two weeks where barack obama did very well four years ago. what if scenario. play out for us. all the states in gray are considered too close to call. if you're going to add up your electoral votes you

need 270 to win the white house. right now we have the president 201 and mitt romney, 191. if you were to give north carolina, 15 electoral votes to mitt romney, you're at 206. you hear a lot about ohio, virginia, florida the trifecta in this election. give florida 29 electoral votes to mitt romney. give him to virginia also. throw in the state of ohio, 18 electoral votes, he is four electoral votes shy of winning white house. if that is the case, needs new hampshire, iowa, colorado or nevada, bob? >> yes, he is look really good in that situation. if he sweeps, ohio, virginia, florida it is game over. conversely if obama takes florida, it is probably all over for mitt romney. i think florida is absolute must-win for romney. if he sweeps those three battleground states he is probably going to win probably will win colorado in that situation. maybe picks off iowa, possibly new hampshire. that is very good night for

mitt romney should he take all three of them and he might need to. bill: debate two tonight, 201-191. to set the map. changes by the day. certainly changes by the week. three weeks to go. bob cusack in washington. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha, what is next. martha: back to this deadly meningitis outbreak. it spread to more than a dozen states now. why the government is expanding their warnings and what you need to know about this. plus with the belt-tightening these days who has the budget for caviar, folks? apparently washington does. what it is costing i and other high-priced priorities for your government. oh, boy. we'll be right back. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!

bill: we reached back into the smashing pumpkins sound track for halloween because it works. pumpkin prices these days, i may want to keep an eye on yours on the front porch because high gas prices are pumping up the cost. some farmers say large pumpkin which cost you 25 bucks last year could set you back 30 bucks. small pumpkins seeing price increases from a buck a pumpkin to two dollars. martha: they make a lot of money off pumpkins. >> they do. martha: that time of year for this again as well. the annual waste book. find out some of the ridiculous items your hard-earned tax dollars are being spent on. always fun or laugh until you cry kind of thing. shannon bream joins me live in washington with head scratching details.

any shrimp on the treadmill this year? >> reporter: that was very popular last year. what we have is robo squirrel. $325,000 development after robotic rodent and designed to test interaction between rattlesnakes and squirrels. we were able to observe it in the wild and important for public outreach and development of next generation of robot animals and robo squirrel 2.0 and robo kapg ga roo rat. nasa nasa has no plans for mars. they spend $2 million a year developing mars men use, coming up with a variety of foods humans could get on mars. if you like going to the theater, nearly 700,000 granted to the national science foundation to new york based musical companies to develop a musical about biodiversity. it opened along with songs as one review sounding like

a wikipedia entry set to music the audience was able to experience flying monkey poop. martha? bill: what? martha: i don't even know where to begin. i don't even know where to begin. i have so many squirrels in my backyard they should watch them behave back there. >> for free. martha: i am glad if i do make it to mars there will be something to eat. so what about, you know the spending is one thing, one part of this equation we learn about here. we also learn what money is being wasted on, right? and fraud as well. >> reporter: check this out. estimated $70 million a year, a lot, for producing pennies. do we even use them anymore? according to the waste book the cost to produce a penny in 2012 more than two times the actual value of the penny. here is how it works after pennies are manufactured and sold at face value, taxpayers are left to cover the $70 million loss. the report shows widespread abuse food stamp system as well. including this one example. exotic dancer in florida

earned more than $85,000 a year in tips but chrs collected nearly $1,000 a month in food stamps while spending $9,000 that same period on cosmetic enhancements. senator coburn's whose team put together the waste book this year and does every year, dozens of examples in the report is a tip of the iceberg i willlous straighting a much bigger problem. >> when you're spending money that you don't have on things you do not need, and the money that you're spending, you're borrowing against your children's future it is all outrage just. the fact is it is not hard to solve it. we have recalcitrant career politicians who refuse to do their job. >> reporter: but he did his job. hear is the book. 100 examples. $80 billion. all your tax money. martha: boy. they talk about the math is just math. if it costs more to make a penny than a penny. >> reporter: you have to ask

questions. martha: i don't know whether to laugh or cry. bill: look out for monkeys, martha. white house weighing a military response for the attack in libya. what fox news learned about a possible strike. martha: just hours away from round two, we check in with bret baier and ask if the town hall-style of debate could change the game?

martha: we are now just hours away from round two between president obama and governor romney. you're looking live at the debate floor at hofstra university in hempsted new york where the action is tonight. the pressure clearly on president obama to hit back. governor romney is trying to steady the ship that some say he rocked the boat on in a first debate. can you do that in a town hall sort of environment tonight? big question. brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." good morning again i'm martha

maccallum. bill: i'm hem. three weeks from today we vote. they say the president plans to come out swinging tonight. it will be much more intimate this time around. 80 to 100 undecided voters will be asking questions directly, it does not lend itself to aggressive attacks against the other person. martha: we've seen interesting moments in the past. bret baier joins me now anchor of "special report." he and megyn will headline the event for us tonight. good morning. >> good morning. martha: what can we expect tonight. >> reporter: this town hall format is different in that the questions tomorrow from the folks in the hall. they are uncommitted voters chosen by gallop. they are basically they are undecided, or they have a preference but they could be swayed before november 6th. they submit their questions and candy crowley the debate moderator chooses the question.

the question has been whether she will follow-up or rephrase and that is basically the deal going in the campaigns believe that she wasn't going to do that according to the rules. we'll see what actually happens. the bottom line, though, it's a much different format, and as bill mentioned it's ability bit tougher for the candidates to get aggressive. the focus groups apparently say they'd like to see a good husband, you know, empathetic, listening, show leadership. one columnist i read to morning said it's kind of like procedu porrage, you don't want to be too hot or too cold. >> mitt romney wants to hold the ground he gained the last time around and the president wants to convince people he's up for the event tonight and he's focused and ready to go. we've seen in the past and you think of george bush and al gore, if you kind of invade the space rules out there, and the way you use that space and move

around you can get up and walk around, very significant sort of in the overall take away sometimes. >> reporter: definitely. the dynamics again in every debate the interaction between the two, you can hear the helicopters overhead, the security increasing, the dynamics between the two rile are a big part of every debate, as you know, martha. and also the specifics. last time, four years ago here tom brokaw was the moderator right here at hofstra, then senator obama was asked a question about entitlement reform. take a listen to his answer. >> would you give congress a date certain to reform social security and medicare within two years after you take office because in a bipartisan way everyone agrees that is a big ticking time bomb that will eat us up maybe even more than the mortgage prices? >> well, tom, we are going to have to take on entitlements, and i think we've got to do it

quickly. we are going to have a lot of work to do. i can't guarantee that we'll do it in the next two years but i'd like to do it in my first term as president. >> reporter: it's possible that governor romney points back to that answer in this very hall. obviously that is one of the criticisms of president obama that he hasn't tackled that. that is showing you that the moderator there tom brokaw was asking the question and something that the debate commission then had a problem with. martha: good point. i do want to ask you a good question about benghazi. i spoke to senator mccain moments ago. clearly he and others in the senate are pushing for more answers from the president about how he could not have been aware of the prior attacks that happened on the ground in benghazi and if so what he did about them. >> reporter: that death tere from senator lindsey graham to the white house very direct and pointed. senator mccain, senator ayotte asking about the previous attacks. you had this uk ambassador

convoy getting attacked in june, a very military coordinated terrorist attack and people knew it and the long list of attacks prior to the september 11th attack. now you have secretary clinton saying the responsibility spots with her. this will not end here. we are actually working on an hour special that will be finished this week. we don't have times for you but it will run the end of this week into weekend, numerous times on benghazi, and we've been doing some investigating over the past few weeks, and it should be interesting. martha: you sure have, you've had great stuff on it and the team at fox as well. it will be really something that everybody needs to see, bret, thank you very much for that and we'll be watching tonight. good to see you, we'll see you later. >> reporter: okay. bill: prime-time. be sure to check fox news out later tonight. bret will be there and megyn at 8:55 eastern time. hofstra university. we want to know what you think also. question on the day online can a pre still

kaeupbstill change your vote three weeks away from the big vote. you can weigh in foxnews.com "america's newsroom." martha: it certainly changed last time around in a historic way. we'll see if it switches back around tonight. big stuff. bill: fox news alert new reports the white house may now be considering a military strike as hillary clinton takes the fall for the security matter in benghazi. listen here. >> i'm responsible for the state department, for the more than 60,000 people around the world. the decisions about security assets are made by security professionals, but we're going to review everything to make sure that we are doing what need to be done in an increasing risky environment around the world. bill: those comments were made last night in lima, pa route. is the administration playing

catch up here, and what strike would be considered. >> reporter: if they can find the right target it could be a drone strike or it could be a special operations raid, but the obama administration is said to be concerned about a number of complications including that the u.s. wants to maintain good relations with the fledgling government of libya which has said it would not want a strike. secretary clinton was asked about militias on the ground in libya and she said this about that country. >> we face a very challenging environment in libya, as does the new libyan government, who we are certainly trying to support. >> reporter: the idea of getting more aggressive with the terrorists who killed our ambassador and three others, though, is language over do. according to one republican senator who says the u.s. the u.s. is playing catch up. >> i think this is what they do after they get a lot of criticism. this should have been the first response. the president should have been on national television talking

about this will not stand. >> reporter: the vice president at the debate last week, though, did say that the administration will quote, find and bring to justice the men who did this. bill: does the u.s. have any leads on who was behind the attack? you mentioned at the outset there, if you can find them. >> reporter: right, there is evidence that the men connected to the attack on the consulate are from the libyan militia group called ansar-al-sharia. they have intercepted phone calls with the men and they were bragging about attacking our consulate. they are trying to figure out how connected are the groups, which stretches from libya to maratania, how connected is it to ansar-al-sharia. officials don't know if the men who carried out the attack are still in libya or fled to another country. bill: big questions. molly henneberg on the lawn

there. martha: there are serious concerns for the safety of a teenager the taliban shot in the head on a bus. she was promoting education for girls in pakistan, became very well known this young 14-year-old. the taliban was vowing to try to stop her. she's been receiving medical treatment in the uk, staff at the hospital there are now describing some very tense moments following a troubling security scare. amy kellogg joins us live in london. what is this teenager who has got even so much attention and has endured this tragic event, how is she doing? >> she is hanging in there, she has spent her first night in the united kingdom in birmingham at the queen elizabeth hospital where as you mentioned there were very tense moments last night. the taliban has vowed to kill her if she recovers. and a couple of people went to that hospital last night posing as family members saying they wanted to see her. they were escorted out despite

reports they were actually arrested it turns out they were kicked out of the hospital and described more as an irritant than a security threat. the coordinate -l cord coordinating consultant has been impressed with her strength for recovery. known has been specific about what a good recovery will mean. she is not out of the woods. the doctors in charge of her in pakistan would not allow her to take the journey if they did not think recover remember was possible. this hospital has the single largest single floor multicare intensive care unit for people who have suffered head trauma and gunshot wound. martha: an incredibly brave girl and they climbed onto her bus and shot her. it's incredible she is alive. what has been the international reaction to all of this. >> reporter: the interior minister of pakistan has put a $1 million bounty on the head of the person who claimed

responsibility for the attack on this girl. he ways the spokesperson for the pakistani taliban. they have gone onto say that she deserved to die because she had spoken out against the group and praised president obama. they called her a spy for the west, and said that she was against islam. at the same time there has been an enormous out pouring of support for her in pakistan, rallies, that sort of thing. some have said that there has not been enough specific condemnation of the taliban by pakistan's leaders but their resolve has been firm to track down the attackers, martha. martha: she is known all over the world and everybody is watching. amy, thank you very much. bill: very cool how the people of england have embraced her also. martha: a brave young girl. bill: that's right. back to benghazi now we are about to get a response from the romney team on all the new developments we heard so far today. hillary clinton taking the blame for the security matter squarely on her shoulders. will governor romney let that stand? will he bring it up at the debate later tonight?

plus senator john mccain moments ago saying the blame still lies with the president here. >> the question is what did the president know, when did he know about it and what did he do about it. that's what the president of the united states' responsibility is. martha: were the warning signs in benghazi missed? four-star general jack keane joins us live next. bill: a daring rescue of a little girl dangling from a six-story window. look at that. martha: oh, my. bill: hang on.

you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more pcessed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i kn is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself.

martha: there is a massive backlash over new proposed austerity measures to pull port gull out of their deepening financial crisis. [chanting] martha: it seems like that in so many places. proceed at the timer at the

protestors at the capitol started a fire after the government announced sharp increases in the budget plan for next year. one of the harshist in port gull's recent history takes away the equivalent of a month's pay from workers. bill: spain, greece, port gull. fox news alert. top lawmakers questioning the secretary of state hillary clinton's claim for the responsibility for the security that allowed the deadly attack on the consulate in libya. senator lindsey tpwraeu ham questions the white house in a letter sent directly to the president. mr. president were you inch tpoefrpld on these attacks on our libyan consulate? if not why not. did you consider these serious events? if you were informed what action was taken to protect the consulate. last hour we spoke to senator john mccain on our program and here is what he said. >> i think it's very laudable that she should throw herself under the bus, but first of all responsibility for american security doesn't lie with the

secretary of state, it lies with the president of the united states. bill: what about all this now? general jack keane a retired four-star general, former advice chief of the army and a fox news contributor. sir, welcome. you have senators graham, mccain and ayotte questioning the white house on this. what gives? >> i don't want to speculate about what the president knew or didn't know and when he knew it, i do know this. certainly if you have two attacks on a consulate that we had in the spring and summer, and an attempt to kill the uk ambassador, all of which took place in benghazi, intelligence is reporting that to the highest levels of our government, because those are major security incidents that are taking place in the world. bill: let me stop you there, you are saying that is part of the briefing and the president would be aware of those events, correct? >> absolutely. i mean that is the routine. these are major security incidents that take place and

they are routinely briefed to the highest levels of ouf our government. not just to the president but the inch tire national security team would have that in a morning briefing, at least either read it or have somebody talking about it. bill: if that's the case these questions the senators are asking is legitimate. what did the president know and what did he do. >> singapore mccain is the ranking leader of the senate armed services committee and overseeing the security of the united states from a legislative perspective and has a rightful claim to ask these questions. bill: why last night, why before the debate, in lima, peru did secretary hillary clinton take the fall for this. take the blame for this? >> i don't know. i do know secretary clinton and she has broad shoulders and she is a tough diplomat, and certainly she is very much aware i would imagine that there has been a serious security failure inside her department. we know how to protect embassies that are in high threat area. they are underneath the high

threat direction protect threat. afghanistan, pakistan. this one was handled routinely, tragically so the security people in the embassy were asking for more personal to help with security and we actually reduced that. people will be held accountable for that and for poor judgment. bill: is she taking the fall so the president doesn't have to? >> i think she's just accepting responsibility in the area that she has responsibility, and she has accountability. bill: there is another report that came out late last night about the potential for a strike in libya. how do you see that, general? >> well, that is going to be dependent on the kind of intelligence we have, how good is it, can we really get that target, whether we would use a drone attack or actually put troops on the ground, and certainly as your commentator provided earlier there is an issue there with the local government and it's sovereignty. we will have to take them into consideration in doing this. but make no mistake about it, this is a major issue for the

united states. our ambassador was killed, our embassy and our consulate and annex were burned to the ground and destroyed. our people had to dessert that area and we have ever right to respond to that kind of a threat. bill: in the bigger picture you believe that the u.s. and this administration has withdrawn from the war on terror, whatever phrase you want to use in that part of the world and that has left us vulnerable. the other big point you make is whether it's hillary clinton or others they know this is a main-stream issue now and a main-stream story that will not disappear, is that right, general? >> that's absolutely right. the real major strategic issue here is the failure of our foreign policy in the middle east, the so-called pivot of the asian pacific. we are disengaging from the middle east. we don't state that but that's what is happening. there is a rise of radical islam and jihadism taking advantage of the forces of revolutionary change. radical islamists in iran want a nuclear weapon.

you put all of this together and we have a major security issue rising in the middle east, much worst than what it has been in the past. bill: general, thank you. we'll call you on very soon. jack keane in washington. thanks. martha: the fight for the women's vote is crucial in this and every election cycle. now the new polls show governor romney surging with women voters. we're going to take a look at whether that could be the difference come election day. bill: also the men accused in the attacks of 9/11 facing charges in a courtroom at gitmo. an update on the quest for justice and the families and victims who have been waiting for that for 11 years now. >> we are going to persevere. we want justice. many of my brother firefighters i was with that day were killed. numerous people jumped from the upper floors. i'll be scarred by that memory for the rest of my life and i want to see justice. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods

that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. two. three.

my credit card rewards are easy to remember. with the bankamericard cash wards credit card, i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ both ] 2% back on groceries. [ all ] 3% on gas! no hoops to jump through. i earn more cash back on the things i buy most. [ woman in pet store ] it's as easy as... [ all ] one! -two. -[ all ] three! [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. apply online or at a bank of america near you.

bill: the men accused of masterminding the attacks of 9/11 appearing before a pretrial hearing at gitmo this week. as the victims' families watch from afar they say they are actually happy the suspects are being given top-notch defense lawyers so justice can be served as effectively as possible. >> they are getting the best defense, they are getting everything and then some, and things are being done right, and we are happy about that, because we don't want anything to have to come up on appeal, that would be -- i don't know. we are very happy with both side with what is going on. bill: a judge ruled the defendants do not have to attend the rest of these pretrial proceedings. martha: the food and drug administration now expanding their investigation into that deadly meningitis outbreak spreading across the nation. the centers for disease control

have confirmed at least 214 cases of this disease linked to epidural steroid injections. jonathan serrie is live in atlanta. what is this expanded investigation now mean, jonathan? >> reporter: yeah, hi, martha, the new england compounding center had already voluntarily recalled all of its products. what you're going to see is expanded monitoring of patients, not only the ones who received this original epidural steroid in question but also those who had received an additional back pain steroid produced by necc as well as a drug that the pharmacy produced that is used during heart surgery, and a drug used during eye surgery. the necc has also voluntary suspended -- surrendered its license to do business in tennessee. that is the state hardest hit by this outbreak. a tennessee woman who claims she acquired fungal meningitis after receiving a back pain injection

has filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy accusing the pharmacy of negligent resulting in stroke, disfigurement and permanent disability. the massachusetts pharmacy also faces a class action lawsuit from a minnesota woman who made similar allegations. so, some legal trouble ahead for this new england compounding center, martha. martha: it sure sound like it. we understand there are new warnings out there. >> reporter: yeah, there are indeed. while the vast majority of these cases involve fungal meningitis linked to these lower back injections of the steroid, a couple of nonfungal meningitis infections, these are fungal infections but not meningitis have been lindh to infectses to the joint, such as elbows and niece. officials are investigating a pots case of meningitis in a patient who received a second type of drug injected to the

spine. so the fda continues to investigate, martha. martha: thank you for the update. bill: live look now at the debate floor. this is round two. can governor romney keep the momentum when that bell rings later tonight? and what will he say about libya? fast-moving developments already today. foreign policy adviser to the romney team, ambassador richard williamson is our guest live to answer that next. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

bill: stakes are high, you know that heading into round two tonight 12 hours from now debate number two will be wrapping up. and the fallout from the attacks in benghazi almost certain to come up tonight. how will governor romney deal with this issue. with me now former ambassador to the united nations for special affairs, is william richardson. mr. ambassador good morning, thank you for your time. >> good morning. bill: how does this story change now after hillary clinton took responsibility last night? >> this story has changed almost daily ever since the tragic events of terrorists killing ambassador chris stevens and the other three americans. i knew chris stevens, i worked with him, he was a great diplomat, a loyal american. we all mourn his loss and have sympathy to his family, but the disturbing thing is that the administration has changed the story time and time and time

again about what happened. ultimately the american people want transparency, want to know the facts. they can make their own decisions, and the white house owes that to the american people. bill: what are you advising mitt romney to say about this issue tonight? >> i think there's two points. one, there should be an effort to get transparency from president obama of what he knew and when he knew it, and why they didn't open up and have candor with the american people, and then the other line of inquiry is the fact that this was evidence that his so-called success on the war on terror wasn't so successful. targeted killings alone cannot solve this problem. you need a broader strategy, and governor romney outlined that in his speech at bmi last monday, and this helps provide a clear choice to the american people between more of the same and strong optimistic, bold leadership under president romney. bill: in light of that hillary

clinton told wendell goler and a host of other reporters in lima, peru that the president and mr. biden, neither one were involved in security decisions at the consulate in benghazi. and the other thing she said mr. ambassador is i want to avoid some kind of political gotcha. how does that frame this issue? >> yeah, they want to divert attention from this. they want to say it's just political. but the death of an american ambassador, the first since jimmy carter, over 30 years ago is not a republican issue, it's not a democratic issue, it's an american issue. and americans want to know the answers. and the administration has to come clean, has to provide transparency. that is the minimum requirement. and finally, let me just say, it is a presidential-level decision protecting our diplomats overseas. it's the president's obligation to make sure that diplomats in difficult situations have adequate security so they can do

their job and clear they they failed here. bill: is it difficult for governor romney to go after the president on this. given the town hall with 80 or 100 voters sitting in front of him? or do you see it as pretty black-and-white and straightforward? >> look, i think that the governor can ask questions about why we can't get transparency, why we can't get a full explanation to the american people, they have a right to know, to make judgments about his stewardship as president and i think governor romney, quite properly, will be asking questions, probing, and trying to ask the president to man up, accept his responsibility and explain to the person people the failure that resulted in four american deaths. bill: if that's the case we'll see how the president responds on that. 20 minutes ago general jack keane told us in the presidential daily briefing it would almost certainly contain the information about previous attacks in libya, specifically in benghazi over the past six months or so. now is that a point of

contention that you've advised the governor to go after? >> well, look, i know and respect general keane. i have read presidential daily intelligence briefings, i agree with the general's assessment. the information was there. the white house had certain responsibilities. the leader of the free world has responsibilities, and the american people want to know how they were discharged, and i think he could run but he's not going to be able to hide. he's going to have to man up and tell the american people what he knew, when he knew it and what he's doing. bill: ambassador thank you, richard will yom son, a bit of a preview of what we can expect later tonight on this issue. thank you for your time. to the viewers at home we invited the obama team on today, they declined the invitation. we certainly hope they will pick you the up on that tomorrow or perhaps later in the week. thank you mr. ambassador. martha: there is some growing concerns that a change at the

voting booth could be wasting votes come november, but even after a court deemed it unconstitutional voters in nevada will be able to cast their ballots for a candidate who doesn't exist. claudia could you betwee cowen is on this live in san francisco. >> morning, martha, that is right. none of these candidates is unique to nevada offered in races by voters statewide from president to state supreme court and the nevada voters will see it there again by complaints from republicans that none might steal votes away from mitt romney and other gop candidates. this summer the republican national committee backed a lawsuit to get rid of the objection. really saying none means nothing and it can't win anyway having it on the ballot diseven franchises voters which is unconstitutional. a district judge agreed but a federal court said not so fast ruling that since none doesn't count in the tphaoeupbl tally that determines winners it will stay on the ballot at least for

now. the legal wrangling over this continues. martha: if you want to vote for none you could just not go. claudia, thank you. bill: my middle name is none by the way. martha: you're going to get a lot of votes in nevada. bill: apparently. new polling numbers showing that governor romney is breaking ground with a key voting group, a group, his so-called secret weapon. they have fired up at the rnc. >> it's the moms of this nation, single, married, widowed, who really hold this country together. you know it's true, don't. [cheers and applause] >> i love you women! [cheers and applause] bill: do the women love her husband? female voters, are they turning away from president obama? why they could be leaning toward governor romney in a fair & balanced debate on that we'll uncover the numbers. martha: a young girl dangling six stories up, her head stuck in the bars of the balanc

balcony, boy, a dramatic rescue when we come back. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul.

i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 8 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. tax efficient and low cost building blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. call your advisor. visit ishares.com. ishares. ishares. yeah, ishares. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.

bill: 19 minutes now before the hour. check of the headlines now. the daughter of george mcgovern says the former presidential nominee is quote, coming to the end of his life. mcgovern's family says he's in hospice care near his home in south dakota. the navy tapping a rear admiral to lead the investigation after a collision between a nuclear sa cruiser. the two vessels colliding saturday during training operations off the coast of florida. amazon announcing plans to hire 50,000 temporary workers this holiday season. the online retailer says it expects thousands of those workers to stay on full time. 50,000. martha: that is good news. on the day of the presidential debate we've got brand-new polls for you and they show governor romney making some strides with a group he had a lot of problems with early on, women voters in

swing states. this as president obama is losing some ground with that key voting block, according to the numbers that came out today from usa today gallop. here they are, okay. this is the poll in usa today and gallop. president obama leading governor romney by only 1%, 49-48. as you remember there was like a 15% average point gap in this category not owl that long ago. i'm joined by brad blakeman former deputy assistant to george w. bush. and doug schoen a former pollster for bill clinton and a fox news contributor. none of you are women, i am and you're experts and we vote on the same things. dog, what do you make about this move? >> martha where your introduction went is exactly where i would begin. bottom line people are voting on the economy. the democrats have tried to make a so-called republican war on women, abortion, contraception, the centerpiece of the campaign, and bluntly it's not working.

the gallop poll and other data is showing that women are moving directly to governor romney and they are showing that that movement is because of concerns about the economy. so bottom line, the economy triumphs social issues and that's what we are seeing right now. martha: let's fake a look at a couple of the polls you just mentioned before we bring you in, brad, so we can get your thoughts on them. the first one we have here is likely swing state voters, who would do a better job handling the deficit and the debt. you've got governor romney with a very comfortable margin there 52% over 43% and you can see why they are talking so much about that issue. to men, to women, to all voters. here is the birth control question. and in this one you can see president obama handily, 56% over governor romney 35%, but the question is, brad, is this something -- i don't hear a lot of people talking about this issue. maybe i'm not hanging around with the right women, but i don't hear people all fired up about the issue of abortion and birth control in this election.

>> well, because doug is right, the economy triumphs all. women are hurting probably more than men in this economy. there are as many as 14 million women out of work, under employed or given up just like men they are affected the same ways. but probably women a little bit more around the household. women are still the ones who carry the burden of not only working but running the household, and i was at a gas station not too long ago in virginia, and a woman pulled up in a big s urb suv, i saw a child in the back and toys and she put $10 in. i said is that all you need? she said that's all i can afford. she is making decisions about how she runs her husband hold based on how much gas she can put in her car. women when they go into the voting booth like then, am i better off than i was four years ago. is america going down the right track, the answer is no. martha: i think that story says a lot. i do want to talk about something that i think is really

significance here as well, doug and that's the likability factor because these numbers match up with the likability numbers that we were seeing for mitt romney several months ago. he was having a tough time in that area. he seems to have done himself a heck of a lot of good in that first debate where likability was concerned, and i think the women sort of come along with that. when you're standing up there you see him confident, like you've got your act together i think that is something that all voters and perhaps particularly female voters respond to. >> i think that is absolutely right. and martha, the hidden message of what is going on in the campaign now is the obama campaign is desperately trying to make governor romney unlikeable again, and they are going to keep going negative, the president to the extent you can do it in a town hall will try tonight, but ultimately their advertising is going to seek in one way or another to demon ice him to get that likability gap back. martha: i've got to ask you about this. tonight, what do you expect and doug you just touched on it, let's start with brad and go

become to doug. what do you expect from president obama tonight in order to bring the women back around? >> well, i hope that joe biden is his debate coach, but i think the president is going to be more aggressive for sure, he is going to speak directly to the issues that he believes will carry him over the line, specifically on the economy. martha: does he look at governor romney and try to make him seem out of touch, try to make him seem like he's a sales machine as they've talked about in a lot of the recent memos and ads that they've put out. what do you expect from him? >> what i think he's going to do, quite frankly, is he's going to attack the president through the questioner. he's going to answer marry's question and refer to romney without looking at romney directly and attacking romney. romney has to make sure if candy crowley doesn't give him time to respond to marry, before he goes onto joe he needs to go back to ph-r reand say look i need to follow-up on what the president told him. fortunately he doesn't have to change his debate performance, the president does.

martha: what is the big line from president obama, doug. >> governor romney your numbers don't add up, your out of touch, the math doesn't work, and governor real people are hurting, particularly women and you're not addressing their concerns. martha: we'll see how it goes. thank you so much. always a pleasure. bill: we'll be sitting here tomorrow thinking what did doug say, what did brad say? jenna lee is hanging out right now. "happening now" rolls your way in 12 minutes. i have one guest that you're covering. jenna: i bet your right, fashion. no i'm just didding. the second presidential debate is big news. we have a countdown running until then. bill, you played some of the footage of past town hall debates. we will be speaking with carol simpson the first woman to mod today rate a presidentia moderate a presidential debate. we'll talk substance that is coming up. hillary clinton says she accepts responsibility for mistakes made after the attack on our consulate in libya and obviously

leading up. does the buck stop there? what other questions should we be asking? you report we decide, that is coming up on "happening now." bill: see you in a couple of minutes. debate number two have a look at what some 60, 70 million americans will see tonight. there is the debate stage. round one was the most tweet eddie bait in history. that is hard to do. the man behind the twitter scene and what we can learn from it as voters. >> four years ago when i stood on this stage i said that i would cut taxes for middle class families, and that is exactly what i did. >> under the president's policies middle income americans have been buried. they are just being crushed. >> we are running out of time, gentlemen. two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf.

bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. d bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger.

little girl dangling from the 6th floor of a building was

caught on tape. take a look at this. this happened in china we've had several stories about children in precarious positions in china recently. her head was caught between the antiburglar bars outside the apartment and she was dangling. good, grief. the neighbors saw the child and crawled on the side of the building to reach her and took her to safety. and luckily that story ended. bill: fox news teaming up with twitter in order to find out what you have to say about these debates. for example, the first presidential debate became the most tweeted political event of all time raking in 10.3 million total tweets during a 90-minute debate. that is stunning. at one point reaching more than 158,000 tweets every single minute. on a typical day the election has been generating about a thousand tweets per minute. use that as a comparison. adam sharp is the man behind all this. he is the head of government news at twitter.

i should call you at adam. that is a little more appropriate. what can voters learn about what you're tracking online during this debate later tonight? >> well two big things, bill, number one it actually takes us back to a more nostalgic model of how we watch these debates, of got erring the family on the couch and watching these events together. by seeing the tweet-per minute counts you're talking about and you'll be seeing on fox news you're able to see in realtime what your neighbors are reacting to, what voters across the country are reacting to and get closer to your fellow voters. second, we're used to waiting through to the end of the debate and for the pundits and journalists to help sort out the unanswered questions. what statements are true? which weren't? and now you can help get that incite in realtime. you can ask questions, and other viewers and journalists can help answer those in realtime so you're not left scratching your head for an hour. >> right on. during the first debate obama

and romney they were essentially tied, right, the number of tweets that mention them. but a tweet can be negative or positive. what is interesting is in the vice presidental debate it was 3-1 joe biden. is that good news or bad news adam? >> it tells you what people are reacting to. these are the moments that have someone reaching out to the person next to them and saying, did you see that. in the presidential debate about a thoeurd of the volume was exblouse i have lee about governor romney. about a third about president obama. at the v park debate there is a 3-1 difference as you mentioned for joe biden over congressman ryan. for better or for worse it showed us that it was vice president's biden performance that was driving the conversation, and what people were reacting to. what is interesting is when we went in with the twitter political index which is how we measure whether the tweets are positive or negative it was actually a slight increase for both candidates coming out of the debate, net zero for the presidential candidates after

the vp debate. after the first presidential debate we actually saw a slight negative turn for both candidates. now this is something we also saw after each of their nomination speeches. voters negative on the election on both fronts when they talk about it on twitter, and you start seeing some of that effect when people are reacting to what they are seeing and what they don't want to hear. bill: adam, listen it's a fascinating new way to gauge what people are thinking and talking about. we'll check you out at at adam sharp, and you can check us out at martha maccallum and at bill hemmer. >> stay tuned tonight we'll have all this covered on fox news after the debate. martha: i was tweeting away last time and i probably will tonight. there is new insight involving the presidential debate from a pioneer of the town hall format. carol simpson moderated the

presidential debate some 20 years ago. everybody looks different. we'll be right back with that.